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Pull & Pray
An estranged family member! A score to end all scores! Continued gastrointestinal issues! Five years after surviving the most harrowing heist of her life, Fantine Park is lured back to the United States by her aunt. The a lead on the identity of her mother’s killer and a score known as the ‘pension plan’, a piece of software that can literally pay out in perpetuity if they can get their hands on it in time. Working with a team of actual professionals with their own motivations; Fan’s loyalties and beliefs will be tested as nothing is as it seems; especially when one of the members of this crew may have been the last person to see her mother alive. It’s going to be lies, murder, and gas station hot dogs all the way down as Fan races to get the answers about the day her mother died and maybe, just maybe, the kind of cash that will pull her away from a continued life of crime. Praise for PULL & “Tough, sly, and funny as hell; Fantine Park is a noir hero for a new century. With Pull & Pray, Angel Luis Colón continues to show why he’s one of the finest voices in crime fiction.” —Nick Kolakowski author of Slaughterhouse Blues and Somebody’s Trying to Kill Me “Slick, smart and bristling with attitude, Pull & Pray is a fast-paced and fun romp of a heist novel. With the badass characters of Fan and Matty leading the way, Angel Luis Colón proves that he has his finger on the pulse of contemporary crime fiction.” —Steph Post author of Walk in the Fire “Pull & Pray will have you laughing a one minute and shaking your head in disbelief the next. Can’t wait to see where Colón takes Fantine Park next!” —Hector Acosta author of Hardway
Kindle Edition
Published July 30, 2018
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Angel Luis Colón
30 books109 followersAngel Luis Colón is the award-winning author of INFESTED and MINECRAFT: HOUSE OF HORRORS. His fiction has appeared in multiple web and print publications including Thuglit, Literary Orphans, and Shotgun Honey.
When he isn’t writing, he’s usually busy baking bread.
You can keep up with him on social media or find links to his books here https://linktr.ee/angelluiscolon
When he isn’t writing, he’s usually busy baking bread.
You can keep up with him on social media or find links to his books here https://linktr.ee/angelluiscolon
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 7, 2018
The characters in Pull & Pray are not people I would choose to be friends with and actually they don't even want each other as friends. Brought together for 'one last heist' there isn't much camaraderie between them but instead plenty of mistrust and in-fighting, not least between Fantine and her Aunt Matty. Following events in previous book, Happy Endings, Fan has tried to go straight but is reluctantly lured back by the suggestion that she may also discover more about her mother's killer. It is often said that blood is thicker than water but Fan's relationship with her aunt is a complicated one - Matty knowing exactly how to manipulate her niece.
Fantine is no pushover, however and certainly knows how to pack a punch! She is a likeable character despite her spikiness and I still found myself rooting for her. There are plenty of books where previously innocent people find themselves breaking the law but to feature career criminals and to make them believable yet still sympathetic enough is a tricky balance to reach and Angel Luis Colón achieves it well here. There is perhaps little real choice available to those whose families are involved in crime and it is inevitable that they will be sucked into that world. Both Fan and her cousin, Belén's lives have been shaped by their unconventional upbringing and particularly by the actions of their mothers. Even though Fan wants out there are limited opportunities for her when this is the only life she really knows. She considers herself an average lock picker, safecracker and hacker but her mother was gifted with a real talent for their profession and though the financial temptation is there, Fan is also driven by a need to discover more about her murder even if she risks jail again.
The heist itself is described as the ultimate pension package and involves obtaining the software code from slot machines that determines how often jackpots are awarded. Though this is their endgame, much of Pull & Pray is really about the planning and I really enjoyed the attention to detail that is paid to them working out their best chance of success. This is a very contemporary heist thriller; the gang hope to benefit from technology but they are also at risk of being exposed by it. Their scheme must be meticulously devised but just how fail-safe is it when they don't even know where their loyalties really lie?
Pull & Pray has a complex, fast moving plot and an engaging anti-hero in Fan. I haven't yet read Happy Endings but didn't feel it impacted any way on my enjoyment of this sequel. The snappy dialogue, palpable sense of threat and difficult relationships mean this gritty crime novel is entertaining throughout. I hope this isn't the last we see of Fantine and look forward to reading more from Luis Angel Colón in the future.
Fantine is no pushover, however and certainly knows how to pack a punch! She is a likeable character despite her spikiness and I still found myself rooting for her. There are plenty of books where previously innocent people find themselves breaking the law but to feature career criminals and to make them believable yet still sympathetic enough is a tricky balance to reach and Angel Luis Colón achieves it well here. There is perhaps little real choice available to those whose families are involved in crime and it is inevitable that they will be sucked into that world. Both Fan and her cousin, Belén's lives have been shaped by their unconventional upbringing and particularly by the actions of their mothers. Even though Fan wants out there are limited opportunities for her when this is the only life she really knows. She considers herself an average lock picker, safecracker and hacker but her mother was gifted with a real talent for their profession and though the financial temptation is there, Fan is also driven by a need to discover more about her murder even if she risks jail again.
The heist itself is described as the ultimate pension package and involves obtaining the software code from slot machines that determines how often jackpots are awarded. Though this is their endgame, much of Pull & Pray is really about the planning and I really enjoyed the attention to detail that is paid to them working out their best chance of success. This is a very contemporary heist thriller; the gang hope to benefit from technology but they are also at risk of being exposed by it. Their scheme must be meticulously devised but just how fail-safe is it when they don't even know where their loyalties really lie?
Pull & Pray has a complex, fast moving plot and an engaging anti-hero in Fan. I haven't yet read Happy Endings but didn't feel it impacted any way on my enjoyment of this sequel. The snappy dialogue, palpable sense of threat and difficult relationships mean this gritty crime novel is entertaining throughout. I hope this isn't the last we see of Fantine and look forward to reading more from Luis Angel Colón in the future.
November 18, 2019
Following the events of No Happy Endings, Fantine Park has been laying low and hiding out in Arizona among other places. She's dragged back into criminal ways through familial ties and the lure of finding out who killed her mother.
This is a book that never lets you settle as you wait for the sting in the tail and that one last double cross. Fan and the reader is never on steady ground as she tries to navigate the job that her Aunt Matty has pulled her in for. Fan's an excellent and fun character to hang with as she gauchely attempts to get the goods from each member of the job.
Colon leave s things poised nicely for another entry in the series and I hope it's in the pipeline.
This is a book that never lets you settle as you wait for the sting in the tail and that one last double cross. Fan and the reader is never on steady ground as she tries to navigate the job that her Aunt Matty has pulled her in for. Fan's an excellent and fun character to hang with as she gauchely attempts to get the goods from each member of the job.
Colon leave s things poised nicely for another entry in the series and I hope it's in the pipeline.
March 13, 2019
Fantine Park is, at best, an average thief, especially when compared to her mother. But her mother is dead, and Fantine finds herself being pulled in by her step aunt (or, well, something close to it) for a sure fire job. The idea isn't to rob a casino directly, but rather steal a bit of software that will tell you when and where to play for the big jackpots. Nothing is ever as easy as it appears and what follows is a twisted tale of well-placed paranoia, betrayal, and plans and counter plans. Fantine is easy to pull for and Colon makes for a damn fine read. If you enjoy crime and noir fiction at all, you owe it to yourself to pick this up.
October 20, 2018
Pull and Pray is short but definitely not sweet, in fact, the grittiness of the novel oozed from the pages.
It’s main protagonist, Fan, was a woman out to settle a score, to find the person who killed her mother, and if that involved working with her Aunt Matty on last heist then that is what she would do.
Fan was most definitely hardcore, not one to mess around, even if that meant throwing the odd punch, and that is what I liked about her. It was so refreshing to have a very strong female character, one who could stand up for herself, a match fro any man!
Fan was very direct and to the point perfectly matching Colon’s narrative. It was a narrative that had no frills, that was economical and sparse, a word never wasted. There were very dark undertones, violence never faraway, as the promise of a once in a life time payout drove Fan and Matty to take more risks, the stakes rising higher with every page that I turned.
Yet, I could sense that underneath Fan, in particular had a softer, mellower side, that she longed for a normal, ordinary life, a victim of her up bringing, that somehow trapped her. I am not sure that it was the authors intention to raise such issues but it did make me think about real life, and how easy it is for people to be trapped in a criminal lifestyle just like Fan, with no means of fighting their way out.
Putting the characters aside, the premise of the novel, a heist to end all heists, required s little concentration to understand the complexities. Once instilled in my brain, I admired Colon’s ingenuity and the research that had obviously gone into creating such a criminal feat. The operation was not without its mishaps making for some frantic page turning at times to discover what would happen next.
The shortness of the novel meant that it was fast paced, and full of tension and drama, and an ending that was surprising. I did feel that Colon left the door open for Fan to return at some point in the future and it would be very interesting to see what gets upto next.
So, if you are looking for dark, gritty, fast paced with great female characters then Pull and Pray is the novel for you.
It’s main protagonist, Fan, was a woman out to settle a score, to find the person who killed her mother, and if that involved working with her Aunt Matty on last heist then that is what she would do.
Fan was most definitely hardcore, not one to mess around, even if that meant throwing the odd punch, and that is what I liked about her. It was so refreshing to have a very strong female character, one who could stand up for herself, a match fro any man!
Fan was very direct and to the point perfectly matching Colon’s narrative. It was a narrative that had no frills, that was economical and sparse, a word never wasted. There were very dark undertones, violence never faraway, as the promise of a once in a life time payout drove Fan and Matty to take more risks, the stakes rising higher with every page that I turned.
Yet, I could sense that underneath Fan, in particular had a softer, mellower side, that she longed for a normal, ordinary life, a victim of her up bringing, that somehow trapped her. I am not sure that it was the authors intention to raise such issues but it did make me think about real life, and how easy it is for people to be trapped in a criminal lifestyle just like Fan, with no means of fighting their way out.
Putting the characters aside, the premise of the novel, a heist to end all heists, required s little concentration to understand the complexities. Once instilled in my brain, I admired Colon’s ingenuity and the research that had obviously gone into creating such a criminal feat. The operation was not without its mishaps making for some frantic page turning at times to discover what would happen next.
The shortness of the novel meant that it was fast paced, and full of tension and drama, and an ending that was surprising. I did feel that Colon left the door open for Fan to return at some point in the future and it would be very interesting to see what gets upto next.
So, if you are looking for dark, gritty, fast paced with great female characters then Pull and Pray is the novel for you.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews